Lex Luthor Ray Gun
This is my first real comission, placed by a fan who saw my props on display at the 2008 Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL. At first I told him the project was definately buildable but if he wasn't in any hurry to get it that I could spend some time improving my skills to build a better prop. He agreed, and nearly a year later it's finished!
The ray gun is based on one Lex Luthor constructs in Action Comics #257. I studied all of the source material and reference photos I could, even going so far as to get the comic so that I could learn the original of the design in context. Luthor builds the ray to give himself Superman's powers out of a radio in his jail cell. I wanted to keep the design as accurate as possible to the comics, but not having a 50's style radio around I had to improvise on the base object the gun would be built around. If Luthor were in jail today what would he use? I decided a computer power supply had just the right size, look, functionality, and plausibility that I was going for. I even built in a system of 3 super-bright red LEDs as the ray in the comic fires a red beam. The batteries are replaced by removing the top front panel, and the internals can also be accessed by unscrewing the power supply case incase the inside needs to be serviced.
The gun was on display as part of my table at the 2009 Superman Celebration and received quite a bit of attention!
Paints used:
- Krylon Gray Primer
- ColorPlace Gloss Black Enamel
- Krylon Original Chrome
- Createx Light Green
The ray gun was first primed in Gray Primer, then coated with Gloss Enamel. Next, a coat of Original Chrome, then areas were masked and Light Green was airbrushed on. Finally, a clearcoat of Future floor polish to seal it.
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